1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mouse, and more particularly to a mouse having a structure for enabling the switch operating levers or buttons thereof to be operated in both vertical and horizontal directions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, mice have been used as spatial information input devices for personal computers. The movement of the mouse determines the position of a cursor on screen of a display connected to its computer host. Further, one or more buttons of the mouse enables the user to indicate what he wants to do. With the use of the mouse, the personal computer became more accessible.
An earlier mouse included upper and lower cases of a plastic material which were united together by screws. Formed in the upper case were two mouse buttons or operating levers. A cord connected the mouse to a computer.
Normally, the mouse had pushbutton switches located insider the casing to effect various control operations when activated. The pushbutton switches were disposed on a circuit board with their operating portions facing upward. The operating levers had push pins each extending vertically from a center portion of the lower surface thereof to compress the operating portions of the pushbutton switches.
Such a mouse was usually designed for users to operate the operating levers with the index and middle fingers so that the levers were moved in the downward direction. As personal computers moved into the graphic user interface environment, the user of the mouse had increased and thus the frequent compressing of the operating levers had occurred.
The following patents each discloses features in common with the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,821 to Sun, entitled Portable Computer With Trackball Keys Mounted On An Edge Of A Computer Housing, U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,289 to Jasinski et al, entitled Combined Mouse And Trackball, U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,051 to Liao, entitled Multidimensional Mouse For Use With Computers, U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,733 to Lo, entitled Ergonomic Computer Mouse, U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,674 to Howard et al., entitled Mechanically Latching Mouser Button, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,894 to Doyama et al, entitled Force Sensation Exhibiting Device, Data Input Device And Data Input Equipment.
A difference between the present invention and the Sun '821 patent lies in the fact that the formation of the ribs (33, 34, and 35) of the Sun '821 and the push member 36 of the present invention are different. The push member of the present invention has at its bottom portion a first contact portion and a second contact portion formed laterally adjacent the switch. This enables the mouse button itself to actuate the switch in both vertical and horizontal directions. On the other hand, the rib of the Sun '821 patent has a cam follower face to be operated with a cam face formed on an end of the edge of another structure. Thus, the button structure of the present invention is simpler and suitable for use with ordinary mice.
Furthermore, the structure of the separately movable part between the two cases, such as the rotary member 50 of the present invention, is not taught nor suggested by the Jasinski '289 patent, for example. Note that the rotary member is essential to returning the coordinate of the ball rotation detector to its original position when the gripping angle is changed to press the left mouse button with the thumb. The structure of button and rotary member of the present invention permits any user to readily change the button compressing fingers, and thereby allowing the continual use of the mouse.